Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Verizon officially opened its Cloud Marketplace featuring enterprise-class cloud based services from multiple third-party providers. The marketplace, which is available to users of the Verizon Cloud, offers software-based cloud resources that are certified to operate in Verizon’s cloud environments.

The storefront initially features pre-built cloud solutions from AppDynamics, Hitachi Data Systems, Juniper Networks, pfSense and Tervela. Juniper is offering its Firefly Perimeter virtual firewall solution, which is a virtualized version of the company's SRX Series Services Gateway. Firefly Perimeter can be deployed and managed centrally or individually as a full-featured virtual firewall for each department, application or tenant.

Verizon Cloud Marketplace applications are consolidated on a single monthly invoice for all cloud services.

“The launch of Verizon Cloud Marketplace is an important milestone in the ongoing evolution of our cloud ecosystem,” said Siki Giunta, senior vice president of cloud services, Verizon Enterprise Solutions. “Verizon Cloud Marketplace is all about simplifying and streamlining migration to the cloud, and enterprises using Verizon Cloud will now have access to a growing number of industry-leading cloud-based applications required to power their businesses in the digital age.”

In September 2014, Verizon Enterprise Solutions announced a new service model for cloud services under which it will encourage multi-cloud hybrid architectures while offering a variety of services tiers, onboarding and workload migration services to encourage help enterprises to migrate business critical workloads.

Verizon promises seamless integration with third-party cloud services. It will offer several deployment options ranging from public cloud to private on-premise cloud.

At the centerpiece of the strategy is its own Verizon Cloud, which is tightly bound with network and security capabilities. A unified user console will tie multiple cloud services together.

Verizon's MPLS-based Secure Cloud Interconnect (SCI) provides Private IP access to major cloud service providers, including just announced connectivity to AWS.

CALIENT said its new Optical Topology Management Controller, which built using the OpenDayLight framework, allows efficient optical topologies to be built on demand, optimizing access to compute and storage nodes to achieve maximum utilization of these critical resources. It also lays the foundation for hybrid network fabrics in which CALIENT’s S-Series optical circuit switches augment third-party packet-based networks.

With the addition of traffic analysis and traffic engineering capabilities (planned for early 2015), the controller will support the full hybrid packet-optical network, in which the optical layer is reconfigured dynamically to create optical “express” paths that offload highly persistent traffic flows from the L2/3 packet network.

The new CALIENT controller will be used in conjunction with the company’s S-Series family of optical circuit switches. The S320 flagship is a 320-port optical circuit switch used to create an all-optical network fabric with total throughput of more than 32 terabits per second. The switch allows any-to-any, layer one network connections with almost no latency and can be reconfigured on demand under software control. Each switch port is transparent to bit rate and can support data speeds to 100 Gbps and beyond.

“We’ve seen tremendous customer interest in the powerful value proposition of the dynamically reconfigurable optical layer offered by our S-Series optical circuit switches, but the stumbling block has been the lack of a controller to allow applications and traffic patterns to drive and orchestrate the new topologies,” said Daniel Tardent, Vice President of Marketing at CALIENT. “Our new Optical Topology Management Controller is the missing link and we’re now moving ahead on a number of proof-of-concept deployments with our customers.”

SingTel and Huawei signed an MoU to launch a 5G Joint Innovation Program which will serve as a research hub for the advancement of 5G mobile broadband technologies. The parties shall endeavor to set up a 5G trial for SingTel’s customers.

Huawei is working on a range of 5G technologies. The company has recently disclosed a 128TRX Massive MIMO prototype. By providing higher resolution in angular domain, it supports 3D user location distribution, so that spectrum efficiency and system capacity can be greatly improved. Massive MIMO is considered as a key technology required for the evolution to 5G. Sparse Code Multiple Access (SCMA), a significant breakthrough technology, is also demonstrated by Huawei in the forum. Live test shows that SCMA can improve the number of connections by 300%, and decrease air interface latency by 7 times.

SingTel Group CTO Mr. Tay Soo Meng says "SingTel Group is constantly seeking opportunities to advance the technologies that bring the best communications experience to our customers throughout the region. We are pleased to participate in this 5G Joint Innovation Program with Huawei to keep abreast and appreciate 5G technologies to ensure SingTel continue its technology leadership in the mobile communications domain as we move towards the 5G era.

The new adapter uses an on-board integrated FPGA and memory to enable users to bring their own customized applications such as IPSEC encryption, enhanced flow steering and Network Address Translation (NAT), overlay networks bridge or router, data inspection, data compression or deduplication offloads, and others.

The programmable adapter card supports both InfiniBand and Ethernet protocols at bandwidths up to 56Gb/s. In addition, the FPGA can be engaged on the PCIe bus, the network interface, or in both locations simultaneously, giving the card complete flexibility for HPC, cloud, Web 2.0 and enterprise data center environments.

“Data center administrators and application users have looked for simple, powerful and more flexible ways to run applications at their highest potential, and to enable their own innovations as a competitive advantage,” said Gilad Shainer, vice president of marketing at Mellanox Technologies. “The Programmable ConnectX-3 Pro adapter card with FPGA completely revitalizes a data center’s ability to boost application performance by enabling a flexible and efficient programmable capability as data enters the network interface or is sent out.”

PacketSled, a start-up based in San Diego, introduced its cloud-based threat detection and response platform as a service -- PacketSled Cloud. The service lets enterprises continuously monitor their networks for evolving threats, detect attacks, and investigate them in real-time.

PacketSled said it deeply examines layers 3-7 of every session on the network in real time, determining the "who, what, when, where, and how" of each session it sees, and securely storing these sessions over days, weeks, months, or years, making a rich forensic history instantly accessible.

"As a society, we've moved from shock that another brand name has been breached to the position of uncomfortable normalcy. CEOs, CISOs, and boards are now being judged on the quality and speed of their response, in addition to the conditions that led to the incident," said Matt Harrigan, PacketSled's President & CEO.

"To date, the tools available to the enterprise have not been usable, scalable or cost-effective enough to get the widespread adoption that will positively impact global cybercrime statistics. Our goal is to make easily consumable breach detection, network forensics, and incident response capabilities available to everyone," Harrigan added.

IBM has patented the design for a data privacy engine for protecting personal data as it is transferred between countries, including across private clouds.

IBM's new patented Data Privacy Engine invention – U.S. Patent #8,695,101 – lets businesses aggregate international and organizational requirements for data transfers and apply them to individual projects. The company said its innovation lets organizations see what restrictions have been put in place for different types of protected information when transferring it between two countries, including data stored in a private cloud. The engine also flags cross-border privacy issues and provides recommendations on how to resolve each based on the information the business has input into the engine. In the event underlying privacy requirements change, the engine can be updated to reflect these rules. Users can then notify teams that previously approved transfers may need to be revisited in order to prevent potential violations.

"Global businesses today face significant challenges in protecting personal data and keeping up with regulations in an environment where cross-border flows of information are more important than ever," said Christina Peters, chief privacy officer, IBM. "Our new invention provides a privacy technique that could help businesses navigate an increasingly complex landscape and help companies proactively manage risk."

The Cloud Ethernet Forum has kicked off a competition to identify and support the hottest start-ups powered by cloud technologies. This competition is for pre-IPO cloud companies, and provides two award categories:

The Hottest Pre-IPO Cloud Company -- for those companies at a more advanced B/C round stage.

"We are throwing the door wide open to fresh, original thinking. But there are three key criteria that will be strictly enforced: it must be something new and different; it must be practical; and above all it must deliver significant benefits. As a participant in the OpenCloud Project, winners will have a head start on interoperability with the systems of major datacenter, network service, and cloud and software providers. There could not be a better head-start in any development or go-to-market process," stated James Walker, CEF President and Vice President for Managed Network Services at Tata Communications.

The competition is open for entries until 2nd February, 2015 and a shortlist of finalists will be announced at the end of February.

The funding round was led by Transamerica Ventures joined by Delta Partners, and existing investors Andreessen Horowitz and T-Venture, the venture capital arm of Deutsche Telekom.

The CipherCloud cloud security platform contains the following essential components:

Cloud application discovery that provides aggregated reporting and dashboards of cloud applications including understanding employee usage and behavior, whether they are using enterprise approved cloud applications or not, and the level of risk of using them and most importantly putting data into them.

Cloud data security that delivers based on corporate policies, industry regulations, or country required compliance laws the maximum level of protection to all sensitive data through a combination of searchable strong encryption, tokenization and malware detection controls.

Cloud user monitoring that enables the tracking and identification of anomalies that help to reduce the source of risk from both of insider and external threats.

"We began our cloud security journey in 2010 by solving the cryptographer's dilemma – enabling the breakthrough of searchable strong encryption while preserving the operations of cloud applications," said Pravin Kothari, founder and CEO, CipherCloud. "Now four years later, CipherCloud is the clear leader in the market with over three million users and is establishing the standard for how enterprises adopt the cloud while controlling and securing their data."

Virtual Software Systems (VS2), a stealth-mode start-up based in Waltham, Mass., said it is on track to unveil an entirely new approach to security based on the founders' expertise in systems architecture, design and development.

Set to demonstrate its groundbreaking technology in early 2015, VS2 will provide a missing piece of the puzzle in today's security infrastructure, filling the gap between current perimeter solutions (firewall, intrusion detection/prevention, anti-virus, etc.) and interior defenses such as encryption, which is currently the only method for protecting data following a perimeter breach.

To date, security companies have taken a traditional, defensive approach to protecting data and intellectual property assets.

"They've applied technologies and methodologies from the physical world to the virtual world – but the headlines tell us every day that this approach is incomplete," said VS2 President and CEO John Conway. "The mechanisms used by intruders to evade detection and trick perimeter defenses are infinite, so the key is to simplify and manage the attack surface from the inside of the computer. VS2 achieves this by rethinking security at the system design level, combining principles of fault tolerance with a new spatio-temporal architecture that virtually manipulates time and neutralizes attacks before they can become harmful exploits."

Salesforce reported Q3 revenue of $1.38 billion, an increase of 29% year-over-year, and 30% in constant currency. Subscription and support revenues were $1.29 billion, an increase of 28% year-over-year. Professional services and other revenues were $95 million, an increase of 33% year-over-year. There was a GAAP loss per share of ($0.06), and diluted non-GAAP earnings per share was $0.14.

"Salesforce continues to be the fastest growing top 10 software company, with constant currency revenue and deferred revenue growth of 30% or more year-over-year," said Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO, Salesforce. "Given the tremendous response to our Customer Success Platform, I'm delighted to announce a fiscal 2016 revenue projection of $6.5 billion at the high end of the range."

Revenue for the company's full fiscal year 2015 is projected to be approximately $5.365 billion to $5.370 billion, an increase of 32% year-over-year.

The global carrier WiFi equipment market (carrier WiFi access points and WiFi hotspot controllers) totaled $527 million in 2013, a gain of 9% from the previous year, driven in part by the deployment of small cells with integrated WiFi, according to a new report from Infonetics Research.

Some highlights:

In the first half of 2014 (1H14), carrier WiFi equipment revenue reached $286 million, up 6% from the second half of 2013 (2H13)

802.11ac access points contributed 11% to 1H14 WiFi access point revenue and are expected to see notable adoption in the coming years

The evolution of network functions virtualization (NFV) offers the opportunity for more cost effective WiFi service delivery by a range of service providers as well as enterprises and other organizations with existing WiFi (or wireless LAN) deployments

“The carrier WiFi market has seen a dynamic injection of growth in the last couple of years, driven by fixed and mobile operators seeking to extend and enhance their broadband subscription services,” notes Richard Webb, directing analyst for mobile backhaul and small cells at Infonetics Research. “The push for service augmentation and upgrade to the 802.11ac standard, combined with the opportunities presented by Hotspot 2.0, voice over WiFi (VoWiFi), and network functions virtualization (NFV) to derive new service models, will drive the carrier WiFi market to $3 billion in 2018.”

Globally, 10G, 40G, and 100G transceiver revenue totaled $1.9 billion in 2013, up 18% from 2012, owing almost entirely to increased shipments of 100G WDM and 40G QSFP+, according to Infonetics Research.

Major growth in the data center for 100GbE is on the horizon due to new silicon entering the market and lower-cost QSFP28 optics, including SR4 and much cheaper 2km LR4 optics,” says Andrew Schmitt, principal analyst for carrier transport networking at Infonetics Research. “Interest in 25GbE is also building momentum for a jump in these formats.”

“In the telecom world, the market for 100G coherent equipment is controlled by five vendors—Alcatel-Lucent, Ciena, Cisco, Huawei, and Infinera—who are vertically integrated, and this is preventing an incursion by standalone component vendors,” adds Schmitt. “We expect volumes in the metro 100G market to ramp in a year and, according to service providers, this will be led by data center and internet content providers.”

Some highlights:

In the first half of 2014 (1H14), 10G/40G/100G transceiver revenue grew 11% from the same period a year ago, and full-year 2014 sales are expected to reach $2.1B, a 10% increase over 2013

Infonetics forecasts the coherent WDM market to double in 2014

Big growth in 40G data center interfaces is impacting 10G volumes, as QSFP+-based interfaces used for high-density 10G start encroaching; growth in the 10G datacom segment is expected to slow beginning this year

Shipments of 40GbE QSFP optics in 1H14 were lower than anticipated due to softer demand from internet content providers, whose needs remain erratic due to a lack of effective forecasting, irregular demand trends, and unpredictable order patterns

Interest in 100G data center optics is accelerating, but has yet to be turbocharged by widespread data center deployment in the way 40G QSFP optics have been.